Reasoning skills are foundational to the success of marketing teams, especially as more organizations and teams adopt artificial intelligence. As marketing leaders seek opportunities to use AI for classic marketing activities such as content creation, research and data analysis, they must protect critical reasoning skills on their marketing teams.
The growing adoption of AI will empower every marketing function with a similar set of technological capabilities. With these dynamics, marketers’ reasoning skills may well become a component of brand differentiation.
For example, as marketers increasingly rely on AI for content creation (e.g., social media posts, blog content, email campaigns, etc.), they may find themselves less engaged in the creative process. Just as any skill benefits from continuous practice, abilities – such as copywriting skills – may dull or lose agility without consistent exercise. Marketers may still possess the expertise to evaluate and guide AI-generated content, but the talent to create original, compelling narratives from scratch may wane. They may find it challenging to capture the subtle nuances of tone and voice that truly connect with target audiences.
Moreover, if AI produces errors where content is misaligned to the brand, greater time and effort may be required for marketers to identify and address these discrepancies that could temporarily affect the brand’s relationship with its audience. Ultimately, while AI can significantly enhance marketing capabilities, it is the unique human touch that will continue to distinguish successful brands in a competitive landscape.
The ongoing cultivation of marketers’ critical reasoning skills includes two fundamental actions:
- Embed opportunities for reasoning practice into marketers’ workflows and tasks through structured practice and coaching.
- Broaden skills exposure systematically to expand marketers’ skill sets for working with AI in an evolving environment.
Embed Opportunities for Reasoning Practice
Marketers need to build, practice and protect three types of reasoning:
- Strategic reasoning involves critical thinking that includes business planning and management skills.
- Scientific reasoning is the acquisition of knowledge through rigorous observation and testing.
- Systems reasoning is a set of analytical skills that enables recognition of interdependencies.
Embedding opportunities for reasoning practice into marketers’ workflows and tasks through structured practice and coaching reinforces marketers’ strategic, scientific and systems thinking. Find ways to make these reasoning skills a part of day-to-day marketing work. Managers can help their employees practice different reasoning skills by asking self-reflective questions during key project milestones, check-ins, or team meetings. Questions might include:
- What have you learned from recent successes and failures?
- How will you update your assumptions based on new information you learn?
- What are the interdependencies of this decision?
Scenario-based training offers another way to foster reasoning skills. Employees work in teams to practice and receive feedback on how to make simulated business decisions with no right answer and how to navigate trade-offs when evaluating potential solutions. Develop a list of scenarios your team has already struggled with or will struggle with. Then, create a scenario-planning tool or facilitate other opportunities to prompt discussion on how to navigate these decisions, including pros, cons and implications of different approaches.
Broaden Skills Exposure
Broadening skills exposure helps marketers develop systems thinking and learn how to work in novel ways. Work to transition existing cross-skilling and upskilling programs from one-off opportunities to long-term, ongoing experiences. Take advantage of frequent goal-setting and performance check-ins to ensure managers and employees follow a skills development plan with multiple types of learning opportunities. Consider ongoing learning opportunities such as leadership shadowing, reverse mentoring, self-directed learning, cross-staffed project teams, job rotation, and communities of practice.
Start by understanding where your employees have opportunities to broaden their skill sets, such as by identifying skills adjacencies. Marketing leaders can then create iterative opportunities to develop those identified skill sets. Overall, cultivating an ongoing learning mindset where employees self-direct their own learning and are continually upskilling and cross-skilling themselves is essential.
By embedding reasoning practice in daily tasks and broadening skills exposure, marketing teams can enhance their ability to navigate the complexities of modern marketing, ensuring they remain competitive and innovative in an AI-driven world.
Devon Weidemann, Janine Kanters and Sharon Cantor Ceurvorst are researchers in the Gartner Marketing Practice, focused on finding new ways of solving B2B and B2C strategic marketing challenges. Learn more about how to solve marketing’s most pressing challenges at the Gartner Marketing Symposium/Xpo, June 2-4, 2025 in Denver.
